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Letters: The environment and the GOP

April 26, 2014

Re “Obama's Keystone trap,” Opinion, April 22

Jonah Goldberg has a point. On one side there are the global warming deniers; on the other are the hard-line environmental activists. One side refuses to accept there is a problem; the other demonizes those who raise questions.

Environmentalists who consider global warming an emergency should support the construction of safe, reliable nuclear power plants and the continued development of natural gas resources to replace petroleum and coal. Instead, they vociferously protest against both, even as transitional sources for renewables.

They should know that, as reported by The Times, greenhouse gas emissions declined by 3.4% in 2012, thanks mostly to power plants switching from coal to natural gas.

John C. McKinney

Cerritos

Goldberg writes: “GOP politicians still care about the environment, but they take their cues from public opinion, not the green lobby.”

Who does Goldberg consider to be the green lobby? The vast majority of climate scientists whose opinion is disregarded? If the GOP cares as much about the environment as he suggests, where are the party's environmental leaders?

Climate change is not simply another problem among the others (habitat loss, ocean acidification and more) that Goldberg lists; it underlies these problems.

Mary Clumeck

Santa Ana

We can all sleep a bit better knowing that “GOP politicians still care about the environment.”

And I assume that we can look forward to the GOP leadership on increasing the minimum wage, equal pay for women, contraceptive coverage in medical plans, increasing the marginal tax rate on the very wealthy, providing routes to citizenship for illegal immigrants, legalization of marijuana and recognition for gay marriages.

After all, Goldberg assures us that GOP politicians “take their cues from public opinion.”